Saying Goodbye to the Cougar Trend

Having Cattrall, a five-time Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner who is about a week away from starring in what will likely be one of the year's biggest films, pose with an animal as some sort of elaborate metaphor for how she too is on the prowl is pretty exhausting, maybe a little offensive and arguably downright sexist. That she stood her ground and refused to allow some magazine to make a buck by presenting her as some sort of ludicrous caricature because she single, attractive and older than most cover girls is commendable.

Salon's Rebecca Traister laments that while celebrating older women is a good thing, the term itself is a massive step in the wrong direction. "How sad and backward that we have to give it a nickname, animalize it as if it's outside the boundaries of civilized human behavior, make it a trend, pretend that Demi Moore invented it. That's not progress, and it's not a step forward for women." Before the cougar craze took off, she notes: "When Cher used to date Rob Camilletti, I think they called him a 'boy toy,' and they called her 'Cher.'"

(Though, we find it equally insulting to refer to a full-grown man as a powerful woman's play thing -- just sayin.' See also: Ciccone, Madonna and Luz, Jesus.)

Indeed, foxy ladies of all ages have long taken offense to the term. Last year, while promoting her film 'Cheri,' in which she played a courtesan who seduces a much younger man, Michelle Pfeiffer told InStyle, "I so hate that term! Colette wrote these novels so long ago, but even today they're ahead of their time in the way we perceive women's power and sexuality."

Now, the ABC hit 'Cougar Town,' starring Courteney Cox, which began its run last fall as a sometimes-raunchy sex farce about an older woman seducing younger men, is looking to change its name.

Back in March, Cox's husband David Arquette talked to PopEater about his wife's cougar status, admitting that while he thinks it's funny, "She's played such a great character and the writers have done such a good job that I think it's transcended the initial 'cougar' drawing." He also gave PopEater an early heads up that series creator Bill Lawrence was considering the name change.

Speaking to HitFix, Lawrence said, "I'd like to [change the title], and the studio has been talking about it for three reasons: One, partly as a result of common sense and partly from their research, they find too many instances of testing of people saying they would never watch a show called 'Cougar Town' ... and then they screen an episode, and people go, 'Oh, I would watch this show.'" He also noted that the series has grown away from its premise now that Cox's character, Jules, is no longer on the hunt for younger men and is seeing Josh Hopkins' character Grayson, who is also in his forties.

By most estimates, the show is the better for it, and even Cox herself has seemed pretty over it -- the title, that is, not the show -- in recent interviews.

We knew the trend's days were officially numbered when beloved national grandmother Betty White joked about being a cougar. While we certainly don't begrudge White getting her kicks while she can, and still laugh when she jokes that Robert Redford is the only thing she has left to do in Hollywood, by the time she reached it, the joke itself was too stale to be saved -- even by the always-hilarious White. (And it certainly says something -- in and of itself -- that the term was already a past-its-prime parody when White used it to promote her hosting gig on 'Saturday Night Live.')



And so now it looks like we're going to have to look at Pfeiffer, Cox, Cattrall and other aging actress for what they really are: confident, successful women whose talent has kept them in the spotlight beyond an arbitrary media-determined sell-by date. Rather than agree to hide behind some sort of cartoon send-up of what an attractive older woman is, these ladies are redefining how we see life after you spot that first wrinkle. It's kind of sad that we're still here, that we're still not as comfortable as we probably should be with older women expressing their sexuality, but nevertheless, here we are.

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